International Permafrost Association Country Reports

Spain

Forty-five experts from Spain and Portugal attended the fourth meeting of IPA-Spain, organised by the Instituto de Estudios Turolenses and the University of Zaragoza, 15-17 July, 1999, in Albarracín. The objective of the meeting was to discuss the characteristics of the cold-climate landforms and processes in the Mediterranean and sub- Atlantic environments of the Iberian Peninsula. Lorenz King (University of Giessen, Germany) gave a keynote address on mountain permafrost in Europe, and Francesco Dramis (University of Roma) gave the closing speech on periglaciation of the mountains of Italy. On July 16, a field trip to Sierra de Albarracín examined cold-climate landforms in Paleozoic quartzite mountains and Mesozoic calcareous ravines of the Iberian Range.

The fifth meeting of IPA-Spain will take place in 2001, in Santander. An active rock glacier has been discovered in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in southern Spain, as part of the EU-PACE project fieldwork. It is situated in Corral del Veleta (3100 m asl.), a cirque at the NE face of the Veleta Peak (3394 m). A shallow borehole was drilled in the rock glacier by members of the Spanish PACE group.Pure ice appeared at 1.9 m depth. As the Veleta Peak is located at 37ºN, this active rock glacier is the southernmost in Europe. The Spanish PACE group will carry out intensive research at this rock glacier in the next years to determinate its origin, the climatic implications and the permafrost distribution in the area.